They're all at it. Some are just better at subterfuge than others.
I doff my cap to the toilet paper manufacturers, who provide fewer sheets, but manage to retain outer dimensions by simply increasing the diameter of the cardboard core. Might have gotten away with it, but for the fact their product is consumed in a place where deep contemplative thought often comes easily.
![Illustration: John Shakespeare](http://web.archive.org./web/20170915022206im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/h/r/c/7/n/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.ghrbqz.png/1434613852037.jpg)
Hiding smaller amounts of product within the same sized packaging isn't really in the same league. Smaller squares, but the same number of squares, in chocolate bars is almost de rigueur.
The shrinking the dimensions of "man-sized" tissues mean they have probably had their day. I have always thought this rather sexist and am surprised that big nosed women have not demanded the opportunity to obtain full nasal coverage before now. The remaining possibilities for this product are almost too frightening to be considered. Surely even the most gullible consumer might notice a handful of snot.
But I may have stumbled upon a new gold standard. My low-calorie sweeteners now come in a pack with prettier artwork, but I began to suspect that they were not the equal of those that I had come to know and love. I have found myself slipping a third tablet into my cuppa.
Initial investigations found that they were now made in the Czech Republic, rather than Thailand.
Further examination of the labels (through a magnifying glass), informed that aspartame, which had made up 21 per cent of my sweetener, had been reduced to a mere 10 per cent with the addition of 6.7 per cent of a newbie sweetener, acesulfame-K.
Detailed further research (I looked them both up on Wikipedia) revealed each claimed to be 200 times as sweet as table sugar and thus the new tablets would appear to provide less bang for your buck, sugar-wise.
Is nothing sacred? I thought that I dealt quite manfully with the incredible shrinking Creme Egg, but recently learnt that its manufacturer never claimed it to be a Dairy Milk egg and that component was being replaced by a "standard cocoa mix chocolate". The time between Boxing Day and Easter will never be the same.
I suppose that one just has to accept that change is inevitable, but wish someone admitted to me that it was happening.
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